Master of Architecture
ARCH7001 S01 | ARCH7001 S02 | ARCH7002 S01 | ARCH7002 S02 | 7003 S01 | ARCH7004 SS | ARCH7004 S01 | ARCH7004 S02 | ARCH7005 S01 | ARCH7006 S01 | ARCH7007 S01 | ARCH7016 S01 | ARCH7017 S01 | ARCH7017 S02 | UDAD7006 S02ARCH7001 S01
Architecture and Commerce
Students were asked to critically analyse historical and emerging housing typologies that premised an idea of collective living. Brisbane’s inner-city suburbs are increasingly under pressure to
deliver high quality housing that also makes a positive contribution to the public realm. Against the housing affordability crisis backdrop, new markets have opened up in recent years for ‘microliving’accommodation models that offer an attractive mix of
location, convenience, shared amenity, security, flexibility and
community. The studio aimed to provoke architectural outcomes that challenged industry norms and urban planning frameworks.





ARCH7001 S02
Architecture and Commerce
Students were challenged to radically reconsider retail
in the age of Amazon, Alibaba, Ebay and the Coronavirus through
the lens of the circular economy.
Students tackled this challenging task on two fronts: firstly, by
interrogating new typologies for retail in an era of online shopping
and, secondly, by investigating construction types which integrate
the principles of circular design. Whilst design strategies proposed should be transferable
to the global retail phenomena, detailed responses evolved from the particularities of the suburban project site in terms of issues such as climate, demographic, code compliance and construction logic. The outcomes were highly adventurous and ultimately achievable.
to the global retail phenomena, detailed responses evolved from the particularities of the suburban project site in terms of issues such as climate, demographic, code compliance and construction logic. The outcomes were highly adventurous and ultimately achievable.





ARCH7002 S01
Institutions and IdeologyWithin this studio, campus ideologies investigated the university as
an institution, and its relationship with the city.
Through speculative enquiry the studio focused on Sydney and the precinct surrounding its Central Railway Station. Students explored the potential transformational consequences that would result from building a deck over the station’s rail yards. An urban campus proposition was developed for the precinct in the first half of the semester with a key building and urban space elaborated in the second.






ARCH7002 S02
Institutions and Ideology
21st century cities have competed for ‘city’
status, premised on the city as a unique destination offering novel
allurements. High and low cultural experiences are promoted
alongside liveability, creativity, investability and sustainability - all
‘-abilities’ are dimensions of assumptions about the ideology
of growth and consumption. Pandemics, amongst other
environmental and social impacts, have forced planners and
designers to re-evaluate this growth ideology premised on the
dogma that economic expansion is for the good of all. The
studio invited students to critically probe the ideology of growth
by reimagining master planning at the scale of the regional city,
proposing to disentangle unviable elements of their civic, cultural
and educational institutions under new paradigms. The projects
utilised an existing institution within a regional centre and, under
an extreme scenario that would require degrowth, designed a
response to enable a controlled approach reflecting designed
ideology incorporating degrowth and envisioning a positive new
civic institution within that centre.








ARCH7003 S01
Adaptive Capacities
The studio explored the potential of the industrial shed ‘type’
as a catalyst for the rejuvenation of an urban enclave and in so
doing tested possible strategies and limitations for the role of
architectural design solutions to respond to the ‘climate crisis’.
Through this, the studio emphasised ‘places of production’ as a
means to embed an authentically sustainable community and to
promote a renewable ethos. The site is adjacent to the
Northgate suburban train station in Brisbane’s northern
suburbs and comprises three large industrial sheds built in the
1950s by Queensland Rail. The Studio emphasised the ethical and the local with
an opportunity to integrate a 100% renewable bio-methanepowered
CHP energy plant
with integrated community uses.


ARCH7004 SS
Dwelling and Density
Housing is often simultaneously visible and invisible in the city.
Depending on how you measure it, housing makes up almost
70% of the fabric of the city. Opportunities to unlock or re-imagine
the city exist even in modest housing projects.
At this point in time, the housing market is predicted to change
with more build to rent housing entering the market. The character
and scale of build to rent projects opens up opportunities to reimagine
the fabric of parts of the city and how we live in the city.
A large Queensland
State Government priority development area, Hamilton North
Shore, was used as a testing ground for our ideas. This location and brief has the potential to create a
new community with future focused aspirations, close to the city
and with easy connections to regional transport networks and the
airport.






ARCH7004 S01
Dwelling and Density
Students were challenged to address Weller’s provocation through investigations into
the opportunities offered by low-rise, high-density housing -
the “missing middle” - to act as a catalyst for the regeneration
of derelict precincts of the city. Through the design of socially
and environmentally mindful housing solutions on selected
sites in close proximity to the historic core of Ipswich, students
addressed questions related to: issues of scale versus density;
clarity in the legibility of boundaries and thresholds; public and
private, individual and community spaces; liveable cities at a time
of climate change, though principles for the design of space and
form to achieve an acceptable building micro-climate; the role
of the building edge as a zone of transactional space and form,
mediating near and far, and limiting and giving legible identity to
community space.





ARCH7004 S02
Dwelling and Density
The studio aimed to identify and implement design strategies
within the constraints and opportunities of housing. The
strategies formed questioned the developer driven determinism
of current housing projects. In so doing students looked beyond
the conventional modes of urban analysis to develop an
understanding of landscape, urban morphology and typology,
for design propositions that celebrated the narratives of daily
rituals and explored the connection between the architecturalness
of building design and its fit with, and production of, the
city.





ARCH7005 S01
Architecture and Landscape
This studio explores the relationship between architecture and
landscape through a small but detailed building proposal situated
in the rural village of Xia Mutang in the Chinese province of Jiangxi.
The proposals for a tea house is the start of a collaboration with
CBC as part of their program of built works situated in rural
villages throughout China. The aim of the program is to provide
new educational and employment opportunities for rural villages
that try to redefine the role of contemporary rural villages as China
continues to develop and evolve. Although current travel restrictions prevented the studio
from following through on the build in 2020, the studio outputs will be re-visited once the opportunity arises and we will build
a version of one of the studio designs with students and CBC.








ARCH7006 S01
Utopian Urbanism
Architects have long been fascinated by the narrative of Noah
and his ark, that appeared in numerous ancient sources including
the Bible and the Quran. The story of Noah’s Ark is well-known:
instructed by God, Noah builds an ark in order shelter all of the
animals (and his own family) from the great deluge that would last
forty days and forty nights. This deluge, and the subsequent flood,
were to cleanse humankind of its corruption, and allow the earth
the opportunity to regenerate—repopulated only by the species
that were offered refuge on the ark. This parable of Noah’s Ark
has taken on new significance in recent decades, as scientists
forecast the catastrophic effects of climate change. Taking inspiration from scientific
prophecies of climate calamity, the narrative of Noah, and the ark
as an architectural archetype, participants in this studio will be
invited to make an urban proposition for an “ark” to provide refuge
for the year 2050. Within this studio students explored historic
visions of the apocalypse, the ark as an architectural and cultural
archetype, as well as historic schemes for utopia.



ARCH7007 S01
Masterclass
In the future, Brisbane has been affected by a catastrophe resulting in
significant loss of life. The catastrophe and aftermath came to be
known as “The Event”.
The loss of life in Brisbane profoundly shook the citizens and many
began to question their everyday lives and ideas of normality. This
included a reassessment of what their city actually was, what it
should do, and for whom it might be for. A frame of mind formed
in response, which went on to construct a neighbourhood in the
destroyed areas.
The studio utilises a fictional narrative, in this
case an “Event” to be determined by the student. This is a vivid
form of an otherwise familiar occurrence: cities are regularly called upon to reassess themselves in response to serious crises:
economic, natural, social/political, technological, etc. The crises
are destructive, but are also opportunities for regeneration and
change. It is a space for the architect as protagonist.





ARCH7016 S01
Responsive EnvironmentsStudents were asked to consider Brisbane in 2030, as Australia is committed to become a climate-neutral continent
by 2050 and fully embraces circular design in construction. In
Brisbane, the delivery of Cross River Rail, the Metro and increased
use of the river have changed the way the metropolis moves.
Queens Wharf has transformed the life and character of the city’s
North Bank.
Students were asked to consider the Riverside Expressway
(REX), once an expression of a car monoculture, as a space to
be transformed. This involved re-imagining the expressway as a
dynamic, sustainable and contributory part of the city; aiding in
Brisbane’s reconnection with its river, solidifying the city’s position
as a global leader in sustainable urban living.



ARCH7017 S01
Urban Infrastructure
With a population of over 5.5 million, the city-state of Singapore
is one of the most advanced urban laboratories of the world.
Singapore’s city-making practices are seen by many Asia Pacific
cities as a model to achieve today’s most desired “world class city”
status. They constitute sources of innovation, experimentation
and creativity, able to shape alternative social configurations,
and break established norms of dominant urban standards.
While working in the cosmopolitan centre of Singapore, students
were asked to explore and embrace different urban scales
to understand the relationship between the global city and the
people inhabiting it. We have focused on the agency of
design as a way to challenge large urban and infrastructural plans
and as an effective way to give a greater degree of flexibility and
empathy to the urban realm.
This studio involved a compulsory field trip to Singapore in February, supported by ELP Grant funding.
This studio involved a compulsory field trip to Singapore in February, supported by ELP Grant funding.


ARCH7017 S02
Urban Infrastructure
Our cities are shaped by their infrastructure. While networks of
transport, power, water and waste weave their way through the
urban fabric of our streets and neighbourhoods, they inevitably
connect to spaces of industrial, agricultural and energy production.
This speculative studio challenged the idea that such spaces
need to be exiled, abandoned and lost to singular functions
without any additional amenity or potential for city life to co-exist.
In looking at the possibility of hybrid infrastructural futures, there is
a chance to envision a city, and an architecture, that is integrated
with its infrastructure.
The project undertaken invited students to reflect critically on
the historical patterns of infrastructure development in the city
(and the steady pressure to push it towards the city fringes, and
countryside) and to offer speculative solutions to the infrastructural
needs of the future—a future in which urban infrastructure and
architecture coalesce.







UDAD7006 S02
Urban Futures
The UDAD7006 studio focused on urban design as an art.
Whilst engaging a wide knowledge and skill base, the work of
the urban designer is driven by the culture(s) in which it operates
and is ultimately a cultural activity involving creativity, composition,
and intuition as much as it does the utilitarian concerns which it
addresses.
Students to learn to form proposals which operate at both urban
and architectural scales, and consider how these develop over
time. Importance was placed on representation, looking at both
canonical forms of drawing and modelling, as well as new forms
of representation. Knowledge and skills attained in this studio will
help equip graduates in careers as professional designers, or
equally, as client-side initiators and leaders of projects.





